Sunday, December 13, 2009

Yesterday's Computer Interest Group [CIG] meeting was, as always, educational. Dawn Bingaman, CIG chair, shared a web-based application she "discovered" before taking off on a research trip this fall. It's called Evernote [http://www.evernote.com/] and is definitely worth a look. What Evernote allows you to do--for free!--is share notes, documents, photos, saved records, even videos and audio recordings with anyone you wish, or just yourself. These records can be accessed by ANY web-accessible device--desktop or laptop computer, web-enabled phone or PDA, Mac or PC based. Do check it out. Space is somewhat limited [40 MB/month] unless you want to pay a small fee, but Dawn found this web tool very useful on her research trip.Lou Daly shared her new "toy"--a Livescribe pulse pen [http://www.livescribe.com/index.html]. Using special dot paper, the pulse smartpen records and links audio to what your write. Lou plans on using it when interviewing relatives, so she can focus on listening to their answers instead of trying to write down everything. This new system should make it so she won't have to transcribe what is recorded--the pen will do it for her! Is that cool or what?There were about 25 in attendance at yesterday's CIG, a relatively low number for this SGS Special Interest Group. Please remember that ALL of our SIGs are here for YOU, our members. If you're not finding groups and meetings that meet your needs, please let us know. What are we missing? Are you interested in starting a new group? We just need ten people to express interest to start a new SIG. Let our Director of Education, Jean Roth [sgseducation@gmail.com] know your interests.